Sorry don't agree with you at all. No one in the actual real world cares if you wear a fred perry.
Maybe in STW land but nowhere else.
As for the condescension, says it all really.
I wore Fred Perry kit at school because it was a sportswear brand and the stuff I had to wear for gym was it. We had mods then (I'm not that old...) but I am guessing the association with Fred Perry kit must have come later when the brand branched out into fashion wear.
These brand associations are quite fleeting. If you habitually wear something, then it also means you. Do you stop or carry on in order to preserve your meaning for the symbol? There can be several competing meanings, but if you don't take part in the competition, you will lose. If you don't support the Proud boys, one way of demonstrating that is by diluting their brand identity. If everyone wore the shirt, it would be completely undermined. If they are such cheapskates that they cannot design their own uniform and keep the IP in it, it is no more than they deserve.
I wore Fred Perry's as a rude boy in late 70s and I still wear one now and again today. I am well aware of the proud boys but I hadn't spotted the Fred Perry link. As the general public are not really aware of anything then I am not too concerned about continuing to wear one.
Let’s be clear, this is not about FP’s per se.
Its about a specific one that has been (mis)appropriated by a far right organisation.
https://help.fredperry.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013674918-Proud-Boys-Statement
fill yer boots.
I'm well aware. My opinion is the same.
I wouldn’t wear a Fred Perry top now. I mean, I never have before but I wouldn’t even consider it now, any more than I’d wander round a town centre with a St George’s cross flag draped over my otherwise bare shoulders.
Both items have moronic white nationalist overtones. And I take the point about ‘reclaiming’ these symbols but a) why risk being associated with morons and b) why bother? They’re not symbols I want to fight for.
And yes, if I bump into anyone wearing a black & yellow Fred Perry Polo neck I’ll be wondering if they’re either a racist, indifferent to racism, or just ignorant of world events.
I’m not sure whether you’re intentionally straw-manning but in fact that’s a good example.
It was totally believable that someone in NASCAR could leave a noose as a threat, just as it’s entirely plausible that someone would wear a black and yellow shirt as a dog whistle to fellow bigots. Whether or not there was any intent behind the rope-leaving (turns out there wasn’t) / shirt wearing is not the point.
I feel the same way about the confederate flag as I do about statues
They are not "history" in themselves. By removing a statue (today) or taking down a flag (today), you are not somehow erasing or denying anything. They will still be in the history books, papers, photographs, paintings etc. The fact that you are removing a statue or taking down a flag today does not mean that the subject hasn't had a statue for the last 20/50/100 years, or the flag wasn't flown from a public building in that time - it just means that they will no longer have a statue/flag in the future. This seems fine to me: attitudes change, and the way that we celebrate people and things today can change too.
But I think if you advocate for that approach, that what was once acceptable is now unacceptable - you also have to agree that you can't reach back beyond a certain point in time and judge people too harshly about how they spoke/behaved/acted about something deemed acceptable at the time.
The (seemingly?) universal acceptance that the confederate flag is a symbol of a deeply racist ideology is only fairly recent I think. Prior to that I think it was used as a kind of "southern pride" thing that maybe people didn't think too hard about, or just a cool sticker (which is how I viewed it growing up).
I'm inclined to think that the confederate flag (today) is useful - it tells you about the person/organization flying it. Which is the whole point about flags, surely? Somebody flying it 2,3,5 years ago? Maybe not a racist. Somebody flying it today? Probably a racist (or at least an idiot).
I wouldn’t wear a Fred Perry top now. I mean, I never have before but I wouldn’t even consider it now, any more than I’d wander round a town centre with a St George’s cross flag draped over my otherwise bare shoulders.
A tad over dramatic
